Seville (aka Sevilla)

Within 45 minutes of reaching our hostel in Sevilla (Oasis Backpackers), which by the way took a bit of getting lost to find, we dropped our bags, got ready and met downstairs to go with a group to a free Flamenco show. It was about all we should have expected for a free show at a bar...one guitarist, one singer/clapper, and one dancer. We had expected it to be a bit more festive, but it was very serious and emotional...either way, a cultural experience we were glad to have in Sevilla, which is well-known for its Flamenco.

At the bar, we were shocked to run into three of the crazy Aussies we met in San Sebastian. We remembered one in particular, who, when last we saw, was doubled over surrounded by his buddies while he was having a "not-so-proud" moment. We ended up hanging out with them throughout much of our stay in Sevilla. It was really nice to have some familiar faces in such an unfamiliar city. (We even unknowingly created a distraction for Chris that night while he escaped the store with two free ice cream bars, and contributed to their breakfast this morning...as did the forbidden staff fridge.)

Our first and only full day in Sevilla was meant to be for sight-seeing. And sight-seeing we did...in the humid 40 degree CELSIUS weather (104 degrees farenheit). First, however, we stopped to grab some tapas at a bar close to our hostel. We knew tapas were a must in Sevilla, so we sampled four kinds, and were 100% satisfied with our lunch. After our bellies were full, we had a grueling walk to the Catedral (the third largest Cathedral in the world.) Thank God many of the streets on the way to the Catedral had overhangs, creating shade for us to take shelter under. As beautiful as the Catedral was, we decided not to take the tour. However, most of the beauty is looking at the detailed gothic architecture of the structure itself.

Next we began our search for Alcazar, the oldest European palace stillused as a private residence for royals. Little did we know that it was directly behind the Catedral...we decided instead to take about our own 1-hr detour through Sevilla. Not until afterwards did we realize we decided to take on this adventure during the hottest part of the day, when most Spanish people are taking a siesta (how soon we forget.) Where you might expect we would be miserable, we still found some stops along the way where we had fun...and even cooled off a bit. We finally found it...just in time to realize a tour around the palace would take far more energy than we had left. So we made our way back to the hostel instead to take some cold showers.

We made a fabulous dinner last night of a lovely selection of vegetables and rice. It was very healthy, yet quite satisfying at the same time. We have been CRAVING fresh produce during this trip as baguettes and cheese quickly lost their appeal. We made our own homemade sangria with white wine (to be different), fruit juices and lemon fanta. It was pretty good actually. We hung out on the terrace of our hostel, where there is also a pool (one of the many cool aspects of this hostel), had some good conversation, and enjoyed a low-key evening meeting and getting to know some great people.

That brings us to today. We checked out at 11:30 this morning, made some breakfast, and are hanging out until we leave to catch out train at 6:45 tonight. Luckily our train ride to Madrid is only 2 and a half hours long. We will be in touch from Madrid if possible (we never really know what the internet situation is going to be like until we get there). So until then, nosotros los adoramos. Adios!